Physician-Assisted Suicide
"Physician-assisted suicide" (PAS) is when a medical practitioner provides a prescription for a lethal substance to a terminally-ill patient who can swallow this whenever he or she wishes to do so. The procedure is legal in Belgium, The Netherlands and Oregon (in the USA), and it is decriminalized in Switzerland.
It is generally agreed that assisted dying legislation works well in these places and is not abused. It does not compromise the development or easy access to palliative care or the patient-doctor relationship.
The Secular Medical Forum (SMF) believes that legislation for PAS, with adequate safeguards, for terminally ill, competent adults should be introduced in the UK as soon as possible. The SMF supports good quality palliative care alongside the option for PAS for competent adults. The SMF supports all concerned organisations (such as Friends at the End in Glasgow, and Dignity in Dying, in London) in their campaign to legalise PAS. PAS should not be excluded as an option within palliative care, as a result of the efforts of religious groups. In recent years, several polls have shown that at least 80% of the British population polled supports the concept of assisted dying for the terminally ill who are suffering unbearably.
The SMF supports the democratic right of all people to contribute to this debate. However, the over-representation of religious groups currently imposes a disproportionate level of influence. The feelings of the general public, professionals and relevant organisations should be fairly reflected at policy level.
General medical opinion has been divided on the need for legislation for assisted dying. A BMA News Review survey of 750 physicians, back in 1996, revealed a 50/50 split. At the BMA annual conference in 2005, a neutral position was officially adopted, only to be reversed to the previous negative stance in 2006 after a vigorous campaign led by the Christian Medical Fellowship. The SMF considers that any change in the law, to permit PAS, should be a decision for society as a whole - not just for physicians or religious leaders.
Jeremy Purvis, a Member of the Scottish Parliament, and Lord Joffe, in the House of Lords at Westminster, have introduced bills in these legislatures, in recent years, which are either identical (in the Scottish Parliament) or very similar (in the House of Lords) to the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which has been closely monitored since it was approved in 1997. Today, Oregon can demonstrate much more clearly than elsewhere a structure for legalized assisted dying which works well and which has demonstrably good safeguards.
The House of Lords debated Lord Joffe's Assisted Dying for the Terminally-ill Bill on 12 May 2006. Fourteen members of the Anglican Bench of Bishops (who sit ex-officio in this legislature) voted to block further discussion. The other twelve bishops in the Lords did not register an opinion. In addition, the Chief Rabbi and the Roman Catholic Church also opposed Lord Joffe's efforts.